Turns out, the founder of Commodore Int. (the company that produced
the cult Commodore 64 devices) was a man w/ a grim past:
'The darkest accusation about Jack Tramiel, however, dates back to
his early days in Canada. During that time, Commodore became
associated with the Atlantic Acceptance Corporation and one of the
biggest financial scandals in Canadian history.
In 1965, a financial firm named Atlantic Acceptance collapsed,
leaving behind millions of dollars in unpaid loans. A four-year
investigation into the collapse revealed fraud on the part of
C. Powell Morgan, the president and controlling stockholder of
Atlantic Acceptance, who was also the chairman of Commodore. The
investigation also showed that Atlantic Acceptance had made large
loans to Commodore.
What was wrong with that? The Canadian report said there had been
heavy insider trading of Commodore stock for the apparent purpose of
bolstering share prices. It also stated that Commodore issued
misleading financial statements and letters to shareholders. The
report said Tramiel and his partner had created two companies
“with nominal capital and no assets,” borrowed from Atlantic and
re-lent to Commodore at a higher interest rate, pocketing the
difference. The report went on to say that Powell Morgan had paid
a “notoriously fraudulent stock promoter with established links in
the world of organized crime” to tout Commodore stock in Europe
through a financial newsletter, with Tramiel’s knowledge and
consent.
Tramiel was never indicted, and C. Powell Morgan died before the
commission investigating the Atlantic Acceptance collapse concluded
its work. He later moved his headquarters back to the United
States.'